About The Author
My name is Char, I was born and raised in Africa, but have been living in Europe for decades. I grew up before the internet was a thing, my childhood was filled with imagination, exploration and adventures in Africa. So many incredible memories!
I’ve moved around quite a lot in my life, getting to experience various cultures and environments. I’ve lived in over 30 homes scattered throughout 4 very different countries and have worked in 8 completely different career sectors too. It’s been quite an interesting and adventurous life, which I’m very grateful for.
I started blogging in early 2000, the internet was a very different place then. I’ve had various websites over the years, but this is the only one still active. Apart from blogging, I enjoy gardening, gaming, various creative hobbies, reading and learning new things.
In 2015 I contracted an ear and throat infection and I never fully recovered. I was diagnosed with ME/CFS and have been housebound ever since. The first 8-ish years were spent mostly bedridden, after which I experienced a small and gradual improvement. Taking me from Severe ME to Moderate ME.
What this means in practice is that I have very little energy, very low levels of functioning, but I’m no longer confined to my bed and dependent on others for everything. I spend my little energy on doing the basics of daily life, necessities only, and any energy left is spent on my hobbies and things that I enjoy. Finding joy in the small things and celebrating the ordinary. (read my health updates here)
Many people with my condition have to find a way to earn a living to stay afloat and end up not having any reserves left to do anything other than rest in bed to recover each day. I’m priveledged and grateful to have the full support of my loved ones, which allows me to stay home and focus my time and energy on the people and activities I love.
About This Website
ChronicallyHopeful.com is a personal blog documenting my daily dabbles, a sort of digital journal. Join me as I explore way too many hobbies and interests as a homebody with big dreams and little energy.
You’ll find posts on all sorts of things from home life and gardening to journaling and art, crochet projects, gaming, health updates and potentially much more.
The content on ChronicallyHopeful.com is managed and maintained by me, Char. There is no team or business behind any of it. The website exists as a personal blog created for me and by me. A place to share my thoughts and record any progress I make within my quest for recovery and my various hobbies.
It’s also a great alternative to social media, providing a more controlled and intentional way to connect with others who have similar interests, without the algorythm’s interference.
I really look forward to keeping the various discussions going in the comments too, so please do leave any thoughts or questions in the comment boxes below my posts (or feel free to email me), I read all the messages and will get back to you, when I am able to.
Where’s The Old Content?
My regular readers will have noticed that many years worth of content is missing.
This website has been active since 2016 and had hundreds of articles or posts published.
In 2022 I decided to switch to a more cost effective theme builder and unfortunately many things broke in the transition to the new system.
Since then I have had to slowly edit every page and post to fix all the broken bits, this took years and I never even managed to fix everything.
Then in 2025, while transferring the website to a new hosting plan, it broke completely. I lost everything. All that remained was badly formatted blocks of text. I was forced to take the whole website offline.
So, as I return to actively blogging in 2026, I am starting fresh rather than spending my time trying to catch up.
I will slowly go back and revive older content over time, but it is not my priority as it will require a lot of time and mental energy to fix all that was broken.
I thank you for your patience in this regard and hope you will enjoy the new content just as much.
Website Branding Makeover
ChronicallyHopeful.com has gone through quite an evolution since its creation. These changes were based on the topics covered and the feel I was going for in each season of its existence.
I have always created my own logos, which have also changed over the years. You’ll find them on my website, on graphics I’ve made, and on my social media accounts.
Although they have changed over time, some things have remained constant: All Chronically Hopeful logos have “CHRONICALLY” written in all caps and “hopeful” written in a brush lettering style below it or to the right.
The older logo has a circle around the text and a small butterfly on the upper right, a symbol of hope as I went through the roughest part of my health issues.
The newer logo only has the two words. Both logos are valid, they just represent different parts of my journey.
You might notice the colours on the website have changed too. It used to be a moody dark blue, but since the focus of this website has changed, I’ve decided to update the look and feel of it too. I’m now using softer colours and aiming for a cleaner, less visually cluttered interface.
I hope these improvements will make navigating the site easier and more enjoyable.
Please get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions.
